Among English speakers, Agaricus bisporus is known by many names. A young specimen with a closed cap and either pale white or light brown flesh is known as a button mushroom or white mushroom. In strains with darker flesh, the immature mushroom is variously marketed as a cremini mushroom, baby portobello, baby bella, mini bella, portabellini, Roman mushroom, Italian mushroom, or brown mushroom. At this stage of maturation, the cap also may begin to open slightly. In maturity, the mushroom is called a portobello.[8] The French name is champignon de Paris ("Paris mushroom").

The spellings "portobello", "portabella", and "portabello" are all used,[9] but the first of these spellings is the most common.[citation needed]

The pileus or cap of the original wild species is a pale grey-brown in color, with broad, flat scales on a paler background and fading toward the margins. It is first hemispherical in shape before flattening out with maturity, and 5–10 cm (2–4 in) in diameter. The narrow, crowded gills are free and initially pink, then red-brown and finally a dark brown with a whitish edge from the cheilocystidia. The cylindrical stipe is up to 6 cm (2⅓ in) tall by 1–2 cm wide and bears a thick and narrow ring, which may be streaked on the upper side. The firm flesh is white although stains a pale pinkish-red on bruising.[10][11] The spore print is dark brown. The spores are oval to round and measure approximately 4.5–5.5 x 5–7.5 μm, and the basidia usually two-spored, although two-tetrasporic varieties have been described from the Mojave desert and the Mediterranean with predominantly heterothallic and homothallic lifestyles, respectively.[12][13]

This mushroom is commonly found worldwide in fields and grassy areas following rain, from late spring through to autumn, especially in association with manure. It is widely collected and eaten, even by those who would not normally experiment with mushroom hunting.[11]

The common mushroom could be confused with young specimens of the deadly poisonous destroying angel (Amanita sp.), but the latter may be distinguished by their volva or cup at the base of the mushroom and pure white gills (as opposed to pinkish or brown of Agaricus bisporus). Thus it is always important to clear away debris and examine the base of such similar mushrooms, as well as cutting open young specimens to check the gills. Furthermore, the destroying angel grows in mossy woods and lives symbiotically with spruce.

A more common and less dangerous mistake is to confuse Agaricus bisporus with Agaricus xanthodermus, an inedible mushroom found worldwide in grassy areas. Agaricus xanthodermus has an odor reminiscent of phenol; its flesh turns yellow when bruised. This fungus causes nausea and vomiting in some people.

The poisonous European species, Entoloma sinuatum, has a passing resemblance as well, but has yellowish gills turning pink and it lacks a ring.

Originally, cultivation was unreliable as mushroom growers would watch for good flushes of mushrooms in fields before digging up the mycelium and replanting them in beds of composted manure or inoculating 'bricks' of compressed litter, loam, and manure. Spawn collected this way contained pathogens and crops commonly would be infected, or not grow at all.[15] In 1893, sterilized, or pure culture, spawn was discovered and produced by the Pasteur Institute in Paris, for cultivation on composted horse manure.[16]

Today's commercial variety of the common mushroom originally was a light brown color. In 1926, a Pennsylvania mushroom farmer found a clump of common mushrooms with white caps in his mushroom bed. As with the reception of white bread, it was seen as a more attractive food item and became very popular.[17] Similar to the commercial development history of the navel orange and Red Delicious apple, cultures were grown from the mutant individuals, and most of the cream-colored store mushrooms marketed today are products of this 1926 chance natural mutation.

Agaricus bisporus is now cultivated in at least seventy countries throughout the world.[3] Global production in the early 1990s was reported to be more than 1.5 million tons, worth more than US$ 2 billion.[18]

Mushrooms contain hydrazine derivatives, including agaritine and gyromitrin, that have been evaluated for carcinogenic activity.[21] Agaritine, a hydrazine, poses no toxicological risk to humans when mushrooms are consumed in typical amounts.[22]